Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2013
From The Eponymous Pickle
GE and Industrial Data in the Cloud
In CWorld: " ... GE thinks it's time to put industrial data in the cloud. The company is introducing a platform for collecting and analyzing data from industrial gear ... Internet tools are just starting to be applied to industrial
…From The Eponymous Pickle
Fake Shops
In our innovation labs we experimented with using false front displays to set contexts for consumers in a laboratory. Interesting and obvious idea, but the coverings tend to be much more permanent than expected. Stifling innovative
…From Schneier on Security
Cost/Benefit Questions NSA Surveillance
John Mueller and Mark Stewart ask the important questions about the NSA surveillance programs: why were they secret, what have they accomplished, and what do they cost?
This essay attempts to figure out if they accomplishedthis
…From Wild WebMink
Brazil’s Half-Miracle
On all the social media networks, there’s a hashtag that I have kept seeing the last few days: #ChangeBrazil, associated with unrest across Brazil. Since I may be going there soon for the huge FISL open source conference, I
…From Putting People First
Service design in the physical space and why it makes sense to design for a minority
The physical environment in which a service plays out has a significant influence on the experience of a service. So it’s not uncommon for service design projects to take the physical environment into account. In a recent project
…From Putting People First
New Ericsson report on needs of today’s smartphone and mobile internet users
A new Ericsson ConsumerLab report, Unlocking Consumer Value, identifies the needs of today’s smartphone and mobile internet users. “The rapid uptake of smartphones and other connected devices has transformed the mobile broadband
…From The Eponymous Pickle
Smaller Tablets
Looking a several projects that aim to deliver information to small executive groups. Mobile is esential. The question is what are the likely formats of the tablets being used in the next 18 months? Applications includeNow
…From Wild WebMink
Porn Summit Actively Harmful
The government clearly wishes to be seen to be doing something about the issues of children viewing pornography and of child pornography. To this end they have called a summit, to be chaired by Culture Secretary Maria Miller
…From Schneier on Security
Details of NSA Data Requests from US Corporations
Facebook (here), Apple (here), and Yahoo (here) have all released details of US government requests for data. They each say that they've turned over user data for about 10,000 people, although the time frames are different.much
…From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Why Game Designers Should Understand Procedural Rhetoric
I am sometimes asked why I think stories in games need to improve. Considering I'm studying nonlinear stories in games for my PhD project, I was for a long time unsatisfied with my answer. But I finally figured out what my
…From The Eponymous Pickle
DunnHumby Buys Standard Analytics
Just announced. A further indication of movement of more data gathering and integrating companies moving towards the use of stronger predictive analytics. " ... Dunnhumby said the acquisition would allow it to offer clients
…From The Eponymous Pickle
Sandra Hughes Coaching Strategies
Former colleague Sandra Hughes, For a time chief privacy office of Procter & Gamble, has just set up a blog: Sandra Hughes Strategies. Check it out. She does consulting and life coaching. She writes: " ... I am a consultant
…From Schneier on Security
NSA Secrecy and Personal Privacy
In an excellent essay about privacy and secrecy, law professor Daniel Solove makes an important point. There are two types of NSA secrecy being discussed. It's easy to confuse them, but they're very different.
Of course, if…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Data and Analytics Need Stories
In Fast Company: Stories simplify, integrate complex things into an understandable thread, engage. That includes data and analytics, but is not often done well. " ... Speaking to us backstage at SapientNitro’s iEX conference
…From The Eponymous Pickle
Weave Data Visualization into Your Business
Excellent overview piece on the topic, which makes the point that the business process must be woven into the quantifications and visuals, a favorite topic of mine. The author discusses the various transformation your business
…From The Eponymous Pickle
Communicating Data
In the HBR: Data needs to be gathered, understood, communicated and embedded in the decision process. You need quant people to make this happen. This article makes these points and more. In the process of several such projects
…From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Presentations from the Symposium on Visions of the Theory of Computing
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) sponsored the Simons Institute Symposium on Visions of the Theory of Computing. The three-day symposium brought together distinguished speakers and participants from the Bay Area and
…From Schneier on Security
Evidence that the NSA Is Storing Voice Content, Not Just Metadata
Interesting speculation that the NSA is storing everyone's phone calls, and not just metadata. Definitely worth reading.
I expressed skepticism about this just a month ago. My assumption had always been that everyone's compressed
…From BLOG@CACM
Representative Reviewing
What is good reviewing?
From The Eponymous Pickle
Feedly Replaces My Google Reader
In anticipation of Google's Reader RSS shut down in a couple of weeks I have moved to the free Feedly service. Both as an App and in Chrome. Works well, and for those that like tradition, it can be made to look exactly the
…From Computer Science Teachers Association
New Code.org Video Released
Code.Org has just released a new video promoting computer science that may be especially effective for creating broader public awareness among policy leaders and parents.
The video, Code - the new literacy is shorter than
…From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Hashing and the Birthday paradox: a cautionary tale
If you meet a stranger, the probability that he will have the same birth date as yourself is probably less than 1%. It is roughly 1/365 if you make simplifying assumptions. The Birthday paradox is the observation that given a
…From Computational Complexity
Fraud or not ?
For each of these, are they frauds?
- The Turk was a chess playing ``computer'' (around 1770) that was later discovered to be cheating--- a human made the moves. As Ken Regan knows well, we now have the opposite problem- humans
From The Eponymous Pickle
Consequence of EU Tightening Data Privacy Further
A good Adage Article on how the revelations of massive private data leaks could make the EU further tighten data privacy. What does this mean and and what are the consequences. Will this sequestering of the data end the domination
…From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of June 17
June 18 Hearing: The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on the nominee to head the Federal Communications Commission, Thomas Wheeler. 2:30 p.m., 253 Russell Building June 19 Hearing: The
…From Schneier on Security
Project C-43: A Final Piece of Public-Key Cryptography History
This finally explains what John Ellis was talking about in "The Possibility of Non-Secret Encryption" when he dropped a tantalizing hint about wartime work at Bell Labs.
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G Takes IT Work from India
Via my UK consultant, in the India Times. P&G aims to cut down outsourced IT work in India. A surprise which is making Indian vendors nervous.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Strategy's Tough Choices
Came late to my inbox. In the HBR's blog in late May. Former and current P&G's CEO AG Lafley on Strategy's Tough Choices. A video.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Computing Community Consortium Announces New Council Members and Executive Committee
The Computing Research Association (CRA), in consultation with the National Science Foundation (NSF), has appointed five new members to the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council: Daniela Rus, Massachusetts Institute of
…From The Eponymous Pickle
Fracturing of Corporate IT
In CIO Insight: Different and becoming more so. Not going away, as some say, standards and security still need to exist. But the nature of enterprise IT is changing quickly. Betting linking to business problems and decision
…